Philippines aims to issue national ID by 2020

Low-income families receiving financial aid from the government will be the first recipients of the national ID.

Low-income families receiving financial help from the Philippine government will be the first recipients of the national identification (ID) once it gets signed into law.

According to a report by Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Wednesday (5 July 2017), the government aims to issue the national ID by 2020, as part of its efforts to further improve the delivery of their services and ensure that needy families receive the financial aids securely.

The House committee on population and family relations in May has approved the bill seeking to establish a Filipino Identification System.

Under the bill, all Filipinos locally and abroad will be mandated to register their personal information -such as name, photograph, birth date, gender, and signature - in the system. The ID would store the biometric data of the cardholders. Each card will also have an individual serial number that will be issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Since the proposed national ID will consolidate all existing government-issued cards, it can be used to transact with government.

"Unlike before, identification cards can now be embedded with digital chips so instead of having too many cards, a person would [only] need a single card for all his government transactions because all the needed information can be stored there," said Davao City Representative Karlo Nograles in a separate report by PNA on 23 June 2017.

Meanwhile, the Department of Finance (DOF) Undersecretary Karl Chua said having a national ID will help the government easily identify citizens who need services the most, especially the beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)'s conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme.

"The ID will be used as a basis for social welfare, so that we know how we can easily deliver services," Chua said in a report by Rappler on Wednesday. "The ID will also contain information to determine if a person can take advantage of discounts in medicines, commuting, health care, education, and other applicable benefits under the law."

The national ID system bill will still need to go through second and third readings, approval of the senate, and the President before it gets passed into law.